I interviewed Ukrainian President Zelenskyy just before Putin launched massive nighttime attack on Ukraine & its capital – 598 drones, 31 missiles, death toll rising
KYIV, UKRAINE — At just after 5 p.m. yesterday, I met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time.
As per his no-nonsense wartime brand, he was definitely not wearing a suit (though I was).
Rather, he was dressed all in black – both black jeans and a black short-sleeved shirt.
It was not, however, his usual black T-shirt. Instead, to my surprise, he was actually wearing a collared polo shirt.
We greeted one another deep inside the highly fortified presidential compound in the heart of his nation’s proud but embattled capital city.
“Welcome to Ukraine, Joel, welcome to Kyiv,” Zelenskyy began, smiling warmly and giving me a firm handshake as we stood in a nondescript hallway, surrounded by his bodyguards and aides.
I thanked him for inviting me for this exclusive interview and apologized that I wasn’t able to make it to Ukraine’s annual National Prayer Breakfast, which he hosted on Monday, the largest one in Ukraine’s history.
MY SECOND VISIT TO UKRAINE – REFLECTING ON THE FIRST TRIP
I noted this wasn’t my first time in Ukraine.
I was blessed to come here as a college student in the summer of 1986, just after my freshman year at Syracuse University.
It was a summer missions trip organized by Campus Crusade for Christ, and I traveled for a month with other American Evangelical college students to pray, to learn, and to share the Gospel message of Jesus Christ with Soviet college students and young people.
We also came to smuggle Bibles into what was then the communist, atheist, totalitarian Soviet Union, the epicenter of what President Ronald Reagan rightly called the “Evil Empire.”
It was the most exciting – and terrifying – thing I’d ever done to that point in my life.
I certainly never imagined coming back to Kyiv – or meeting the President of Ukraine – much less giving him a Hebrew-English Bible from Jerusalem as a gift, one we didn’t even need to smuggle in.
DISCUSSING UKRAINE’S LATEST SITUATION IN THEIR SITUATION ROOM
After bringing him greetings from three mutual friends of ours whom I’d spoken to in preparation for this meeting – former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, the mention of whose names seemed to truly encourage him – Zelenskyy invited me to walk with him into the Situation Room.
A large conference table stood in the center. The walls were covered with huge plasma video screens. Computer stations ringed the table on two sides.
At the far end of the room stood two Ukrainian flags, two chairs, and the lights, cameras, and sound equipment my TBN television crew had brought and set up.
Once the camera started recording, we covered a lot of ground.
The conversation was supposed to go for 30 minutes.
Instead, we went for at least 45 minutes.
Then he stayed to take pictures, shake hands with each member of my team, and chat a bit longer.
All told, we spent about an hour together.
WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU ASK ZELENSKYY?
In the days ahead, I’ll share with you exactly what I asked Zelenskyy and exactly what he told me.
The full interview will air in two parts, Lord willing, on THE ROSENBERG REPORT, on TBN – the most-watched Christian television network in the U.S. – beginning next Thursday evening at 9 p.m. EST.
But I can tell you now that he gave me the intriguing inside story of what really happened in his Oval Office meeting last week with President Donald J. Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and key European leaders.
He told me bluntly what he thinks of Russian President Vladimir Putin and whether he sees any hope for the end of this brutal, bitter, bloody war anytime soon.
Zelenskyy also pushed back sharply at Tucker Carlson’s allegations that Ukraine is persecuting, imprisoning, and punishing Christian pastors and priests.
And he flat-out accused Putin of committing war crimes by capturing, abusing, and trafficking upwards of 20,000 Ukrainian children in the Russian-occupied regions of eastern Ukraine.
As I said, we covered a lot of ground, and I look forward to publishing stories on all of it soon.
PUTIN LAUNCHES MASSIVE MISSILE & DRONE ATTACK ON UKRAINE
But just hours later, as I processed all that I’d seen and heard, I was awakened by the sounds of massive explosions shaking our hotel and rippling across Kyiv.
Throughout the night, the explosions got worse, and it was hard not to feel like I was back in Israel during the worst moments of our nearly two-year war with the Iranian regime and its terror proxies.
As the sun rose, and I awoke after only a few hours of sleep, I learned the extent of the attack “Mad Vlad” – Russian President Vladimir Putin, the war criminal of the Kremlin – had unleashed in the darkness of night.
“Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine, and residents of nearly every region were urged to seek shelter as Russia launched hypersonic missiles and multiple waves of drones throughout the night,” the Kyiv Independent newspaper reported.
“At least four MiG-31 aircraft – jets armed with Kinzhal missiles – took off during the attack.”
“Russia launched 598 drones overnight,” the newspaper added, basing its reporting on briefings from Ukraine’s Air Force.
The strikes hit all over Ukraine, but especially in the capital, and included “Shahed attack drones and decoys, as well as 31 missiles, among them two Kh-47 Kinzhal ballistic missiles, nine Iskander-M or North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles, and 20 Kh-101 cruise missiles,” the Air Force stated.
“Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 563 drones and 26 missiles,” the Defense Ministry noted.
Throughout Thursday, the death toll was rising.
REPORTING FROM THE SITE OF CZAR PUTIN’S LATEST ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS
By 7 p.m. local time on Thursday, the police reported that 18 Ukrainian civilians had died in the Russian attacks on apartment buildings, schools, office buildings, and shopping centers.
My TBN crew then went to the scene of a five-story apartment building and neighborhood in Kyiv that received direct hits by several Russian ballistic missiles.
The devastation was staggering.
Emergency crews were actively searching for any possible survivors who might be trapped in the rubble.
The apartment building will have to be completely razed and rebuilt from scratch.
In the parking lot, we saw cars and trucks utterly melted down because of the resulting inferno that followed the initial explosions.
As an Israeli who has lived through – and reported through – the seven-front war against us since October 7th, 2023, this wasn’t a new scene to me.
CAN ISRAELIS LEARN FROM UKRAINIANS?
By now, I’ve come to have a lot of experience with such devastation, such pain, and such senseless evil.
But I will never get used to it.
It always hits me hard – very hard.
I grieve for those directly impacted.
And I pray that the Lord will show them great mercy and a “peace that passes all understanding.” (Philippians 4:7)
That said, one especially painful fact gnawed at me all day.
Israel has “only” been dealing with such unprovoked evil for two years.
Ukraine has been swept up in this madness for three and a half.
May God have mercy on this nation and its leaders.
Now, more than ever.
Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS and the President and CEO of Near East Media. A New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical leader, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and sons.
